


This is Halloween

by steamworkBlue



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Humanstuck, M/M, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-01 10:30:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steamworkBlue/pseuds/steamworkBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and four friends set up for a Halloween party. Contains stupid hats, teenage crushes, and a final year of trick-or-treating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a school assignment intended to display my ability to use vocabulary words, and then ten more pages happened. I'm in the process of writing a larger story set in this universe, but I'm not sure if this'll make it into the main story or not, and even if it did it'd be a less one-shot-y version, so I thought I'd just post it.

When John answers the door he's wearing a stupid jester hat and a stupider grin. 'Happy Halloween!' he proclaims, and throws a bit of glitter shaped like bats and pumpkins in the air. You grin back, more at him than the gesture. 'You starting the party without me?'

He laughs. 'You ain't seen nothing yet! And you're not getting out of helping set up, either.'

'I volunteered, didn't I? Charitable person that I am.' He shuts the door behind you. 'So what're we doing?'

'Well first off, you need your hat.'

'Oh god no.'

'Is that Dave?' Another voice comes in from the study, followed by a chestnut-haired head angled around the entryway. 'Hi Dave.'

'Hi Sollux.' He's also got a stupid hat on, although his is neon and bee-shaped.

'Get me his hat,' John says, continuing to lead you over. By the time you cross the room Sollux has returned with a pink pope hat with eyes and tentacles.

'No,' you say, leaning back as John attempts to place it on your poor, innocent head. 'No, no '

'Shut up, we're all wearing ours.' A fourth voice, one you recognise as belonging to your quasi-friend Karkat and coming from his seat on the safe in the corner, where he's trying to untangle a string of ghost-shaped lights. John manages to get the squid on your head while you're looking over at him and the large, red crab he's sporting. 'Besides, you get to help us jump Eridan when he finally gets his ass over here.' He picks up a shark designed to look like it's eating the wearer's head and holds it up so you can see.

'Fair enough.'

'I'll bring your stuff upstairs, we can get changed later,' John says, lifting your backpack out of your hand. 'Help Karkat?'

'Yes, please, help Karkat,' Karkat says, and tosses another ball of lights over to you. These ones feature pumpkins, and you sit down on the edge of the desk to start untangling them. The doorbell rings.

'Is that Eridan?' Sollux asks in an undertone, as John's footsteps go back downstairs to answer it.

'Must be.'

'You two, get on either side of the arch. Against the wall.' You can hear John shouting 'Happy Halloween!' again. You get off the desk and press your back to the space of wall beside it. Karkat replaces the ball of wires in his hands with the shark hat and hides it behind his back. You wonder if John is accidentally going to forewarn Eridan — but, no, he says, 'We're doing the assembly parts in the study,' and Eridan comes in behind him.

In hindsight, the zeal with which you and Sollux tackled him was unkind. You’re not going to apologise, though, and that half-scream half-squawk he let out was fairly hilarious.

‘Everything all right?’ John’s dad pushes open the saloon-gate entrance of the kitchen and stands there, observing the proceedings.

‘We’re fine, dad.’

‘Just a bit of friendly manhandling,’ you assure him.

Eridan pouts at him, craning his neck from where you've got him pinned. ‘They've got some horrible fate planned for me, I know it. They've joined- they've formed a hat cult. They’re doing evil hat things.’ Karkat waves the shark hat around to catch Eridan’s attention. ‘See?’

Mr. Egbert chuckles before something beeps in the kitchen and he vanishes again. With all your attentions back on the matter at hand, Karkat firmly and unceremoniously affixes the shark to Eridan’s head. His hair is ungelled for once in his life, and a few stray locks stick out, fluffy and limp, from between the teeth. It’s so stupid.

‘I would've cooperated, you know.’ He reaches up to adjust the hat, setting it at a somewhat jauntier angle, which only goes to make it all the more ludicrous. Although if you’re judging based on the hats themselves, Sollux wins hands-down.

John’s giggling a bit. You realise that he probably bought these all specifically for each of you, and while you’re not sure what the connection between you and squids would be besides _badass_ or _easily portrayed as ridiculous_ , you suddenly don’t mind it as much.

‘I’ll put your bag upstairs,’ he says to Eridan, already having taken it from him. Karkat throws him a third string of lights, which he fails to catch.

 

You spend the next stretch thoroughly cheerful-Halloweening John’s house. You string the luminous ghosts, pumpkins, and bats up along the staircase and around the living room. You replace a few of the regular lightblubs with coloured ones, or at least, Sollux does, standing on a chair while John spots him. You cover all the living room and study furniture with white sheets for both abandoned house and easy cleanup reasons. You stop for lunch. You put spider web clings on the windows and skeleton decals on the walls; “danger do not enter” signs on the bedroom doors. You set out a bowl of candy with a mechanical hand that’ll grab yours if you’re not fast enough, and then another bowl because you can’t fit everything in the first. John scatters more glitter.

You flop down on the couch to admire your handiwork. It’s cartoonish and overdone and beautiful. John’s dad’s weird clown paintings are the icing on the black and orange cake. You don’t get to enjoy the view for long, however, because it’s a three person sofa and there are five of you. You and John sat down first and Sollux has managed to nab the middle, but while Eridan has accepted his fate on the floor Karkat seems to have decided that no, Sollux did not actually claim that spot, and sits on top of him for lack of remaining free cushion. Sollux shoves him off and Karkat does his best to pull him down with him, and for a bit they’re scuffling around trying to disentangle themselves and prevent the other from doing so at the same time.

‘Oh!’ John says, and laughs. ‘I just remembered now, we were supposed to put out the dining and folding chairs.’ He gets up, stepping carefully over Karkat’s head. ‘Thanks for reminding me guys.’ Sollux manages to pull himself up and dust himself off, Karkat scrambling to his feet barely a moment after. Eridan climbs quietly into John’s vacated seat.

The peace doesn't last long – John has you bringing more chairs into the living room, and then you've got to decorate the outside. The sky is an unappealing shade of grey, and you have to flip up the hood of your sweatshirt against the chill. Last year bore acceptable weather, but you suppose you shouldn't push your luck. You wish you’d thought to bring an umbrella.

The lights you string up between the pillars of the front porch are alternating orange and purple spheres. John and his Dad have already set out jack-o-lanterns and you’re going to light them later, so really all that remains is to drive the little garbage bag ghosts on sticks John and Sollux assembled earlier into the ground. Karkat comes off a slightly too enthusiastic attempt with a splinter he can’t drag out between the mismatched lengths of his fingernails no matter how many explicatives he throws at it. John runs in to get the tweezers but doesn’t manage to fish it out. It probably doesn’t help that Karkat’s yelling at him, face twisted into a snarl, and the rest of you are gathered close around, offering unhelpful suggestions. After a bit Sollux and his mad-precision fingers take over and retrieve it within a matter of seconds.

 

‘It still needs something,’ John says as you all stand on the porch and look at the ghost-strewn yard. You’re not sure what, and judging by the silence no-one else does either. The whole decorating scheme has a noticeable lack of witches, but you don’t know how or where you’d tie them in. Same for werewolves, and zombies. Maybe you should put a giant spider on the roof. That’d be cool, but you lack the time and resources. Some sort of music player set up with spooky noises?

‘Didn’t you have,’ Sollux says eventually, ‘That-’

‘Hmmn?’

‘The harlequin.’

‘Holy shit, yes. I’ll be right back.’ John disappears into the house again. The whole place is decorated with harlequins from his dad’s strange obsession, so you’re not sure which one would earn the title of “the.” Eridan looks at you, eyebrows confused, and you shrug. Sollux laughs with his tongue poking out between his teeth. ‘You’ll see.’

You see. Eridan makes a strangled sort of screaming noise and you can’t do much besides stare. It’s stuffed, covered in multitudinous colours and patters, and _taller than John is_. Its head hits the door frame on the way out. ‘Where were you even keeping that?’

He grins at your expressions. ‘The storage room, you know, the one off the kitchen. My dad got it for me for my thirteenth birthday.’ He sits it down in the corner of the porch and looks at it appraisingly. ‘I wonder if we have any extra chairs.’

‘I can go see if we've got one. We probably do,’ Sollux offers.

‘Yeah, that’d be great.’

He nods. ‘Back in a bit, then,’ and heads for his house next door. You lean against the railing while you wait and stick your chilled hands in your kangaroo pocket. The harlequin watches you with a mischievous smile and eyes like the void.

You turn your attention to John instead. He’s leaning against the front door, hands similarly pocketed, and looks back when he notices you. He somehow manages to catch your eyes behind your shades. The cliché description would be one of him looking right through you, but even if your internal monologue stooped to such things it’d be inaccurate. The harlequin’s looking through you. John’s looking at you. He smiles. ‘Whatcha guys thinking about?’ he asks after a few moments. You don’t think it would be prudent to say “you.”

Eridan is staring down the harlequin and worrying the edge of the stupid purple cape he’s wearing in place of a hoodie. ‘Murder,’ he says, and you all look at him. ‘Well you asked.’

‘Why,’ says Karkat, ‘Are all my friends weirdos.’

‘Like there’s any other kind of person in this town.’ You smirk. ‘You know you love us.’

‘Like hell I do. I love you like a zoo vet loves ringworm.’

A low _ooooh_ passes around between you, lead by John. It’s interrupted by a voice from across the yard. ‘You guys talking about parasitic diseases without me?’ It doesn't take Sollux long at all to reach the porch in his long-legged stride.

‘Of course not,’ you say. ‘Party don’t start til you walk in.’

He cackles. ‘You know it. Here.’ He shows the folded camp chair he’s brought over to John, who promptly goes over to pick up the harlequin again. They arrange it and stand back.

Eridan is the first to finally say it. ‘That’s creepy as hell.’

‘It’s Halloween, what do you expect?’

‘Yeah, but the inside is so... not.’

‘My dad’s got those clowns up inside too. This way it matches.’

You shrug. ‘I like it. “Creepy as hell” is accurate, but I like it.’

The others nod their agreement. ‘Our work here is done,’ John declares.

 

It turns out four of you _can_ fit on the couch, as you, Sollux, and Karkat are skinny enough to only count as two people when put together. Eridan hunches over his 3DS in a chair, his heels resting on the seat, while the rest of you do your best to pulverise the others in Mario Kart. Sollux is winning and laughing about it, and Karkat is cursing about it, and John’s eyebrows are furrowed in concentration. You’re not too bad at this game. You overtake Karkat because he’s so busy being angry he drives off the track.

John gives Eridan his controller for a few races, and you go two bouts in Super Smash Brothers Brawl before Sollux asks what time it is. You pull out your phone. ‘Three.’

‘Shit.’ He puts down his controller and hands his hat to John for safekeeping. ‘I’ve gotta go.’

‘Where’re you going?’

‘I’ve got to get my costume on.’

‘The party’s not for two hours, what are you even going as?’

‘You’ll see.’ He grins. ‘See you guys later.’

He goes, and John picks up his abandoned controller. ‘He’s going to be cooler than any of us.’

‘Course he is,’ Eridan says. ‘He’s him. He’s so lame he loops back around to being cool. He’s gonna go as a robot-pirate-ninja or sexy Hitler or something and he’s still gonna be cool.’

You have to cover your mouth to stop yourself cracking up. John has already devolved into a fit of the giggles. ‘He’s not going to go as fucking sexy Hitler!’ Karkat yells at Eridan through chokes of laughter. He flushes, shrinks down, and smiles, not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed, at his accidental hilarity.

You play video games for a quarter under an hour more before John’s dad has you come and help him clean up the kitchen. (‘That’s why Sollux left so early,’ Eridan theorises, and Karkat hits him on the back of the head. ‘He’s not psychic. Nor is he as lazy as you.’) Even without Sollux, the five of you make short work of the kitchen. A sixth would have only made it overcrowded, anyway. You each get a Dum Dum for your efforts. Really, you could’ve just grabbed one, or any kind of candy, from the bowl in the living room, but that’d’ve required the specific want for one, and being actually handed a sweet is a different matter entirely. You flump all over the sofa again.

John looks at his watch, and then hops up again almost moments after sitting down. ‘Costume time!’ he says, and thunders up the stairs to his room. You all follow at various speeds.

You stand around awkwardly when you get there, each of you guests holding your own bag. Eridan, for once, is the fastest to think and act of any of you, and says ‘I call bathroom’ before scarpering. The three of you look between each other. You are (presumably) all male, so really the main thing stopping you is the fact that you’re also all wimps. Karkat takes action after a few seconds.‘Yeah, I’m just going to wait for fishface to get out of the bathroom. Have fun with your unresolved sexual tension.’

It’s too much to hope that your blush doesn’t show. But John’s laughing as Karkat leaves, and as he looks over at you. ‘It’s just funny how worked up about this you guys are. You could never be on a sports team, you’d die of embarrassment in the locker rooms. I mean, come on. We’re all dudes.’ He pulls his shirt off and you’re really blushing now, someone turned on red lightbulbs underneath your paper-white skin, you have reached critical anime character. You look longer than you should before busying yourself with your backpack.

Choosing a Halloween costume has always been a challenge for you, made even more difficult by the fact that unless you want to be “X with sunglasses” you have to find a way to incorporate your shades. Regular glasses are an excusable inaccuracy, but most would interpret yours as a fashion choice, especially since most Halloween-related things take place in the dark. You went without them one year when you were younger, combining your natural colouration (you look even paler in black) with fake fangs to be what you thought was a rather cool vampire. It was tolerable enough but uncomfortable, and in some places slipping out of acceptable and into squint mode. That and a few non-Halloween incidents you’d rather not recall led to your position on shades being a necessity.

You’re proud of what you’ve come up with this year, though. Sure, maybe you got the idea from a pun on the internet, but still. You unpack and - after another glance at John - change. Black trousers, white shirt, remember how to tie that scarf thing, black jacket (straighten the pre-attached fake raven with its plastic-gold dollar sign necklace), black socks and shoes. Short black wig. Eyebrow pencil because sometimes being this blond sucks. “Swag” necklace, fake rings. You leave the squid hat on John’s desk and turn around to face him again.

He’s grinning at you, very plainly a Ghostbuster. You smile back. ‘I can’t figure it out,’ he says after a few moments of looking at you.

‘Edgar Allan Bro.’

‘Oh!’ He laughs. ‘That’s awesome.’

You smile again. ‘So are you.’

‘Thanks!’ He strikes a pose. ‘I ain’t afraid of no ghosts!’ and then laughs again. His costume is indeed a cut above the rest, it’s not just you saying that - he’s smudged dirt and day-glo green paint in places on his jumpsuit, and it looks like he made the backpack himself. He’s wearing chuckies with glow-in-the-dark laces. ‘I wonder if the others are done yet.’

They’re not. Karkat is still waiting outside the bathroom. He makes a groaning noise in complaint to you when you appear. ‘I’ll just go in there.’ He nods towards John’s bedroom and picks up his stuff. ‘Come downstairs when you’re finished,’ John says to both him and Eridan, and you go down yourselves.

John’s dad is already in costume (as a _spoon_ of all things. You expected a harlequin but no. A spoon) and smiles at the two of you. ‘Very nice. I’m afraid I’m not sure what you are, Dave, but you’re very… “swaggy”?’

John facepalms, but you laugh. ‘Very hip of you, Mr Egbert, nice job,’ and explain.

Karkat comes down before Eridan does. His costume is a composite of 80s thrift-store relics. There’s no when else that jacket could have possibly come from. He’s done his best to tuck his bangs up under a sideways baseball cap. He’s holding his mp3 player. ‘Who are you supposed to be?’ John asks, and his expression turns from pride to exasperated disappointment. ‘Will Smith!’ he says, and presses the play button. The theme song from _The Fresh Prince of Bel Air_ fills up the living room, tinny from the small speakers. His smug smile returns with your looks of understanding. He’s tilting to the music slightly, wanting to dance or sing along, but not about to.

You’re all sitting around talking when Eridan finally comes down. He looks odd, almost unrecognisable, with contacts in instead of his thick-framed glasses - although that might be partially credible to his shoulder-length black wig. ‘What’re you?’ you ask, and John answers before Eridan can. ‘Severus Snape!’ You’ve never been a huge Harry Potter fan, but you’ve seen the movies because who hasn’t, and you can definitely see it. He nods his affirmation.

‘Go ahead, recognise his costume instantly,’ Karkat says, tone on the line between real and mock resentment.

‘I didn’t do it on purpose!’

‘Sure you didn’t.’

You take out your phone to check the time again. ‘Twenty minutes to,’ you report. ‘Wonder where Sollux is.’

Not five seconds later, as if on cue, the doorbell rings. John springs up to answer it. ‘Happy Halloween!’ he says, and gets a cheerful ‘Happy Halloween!’ in return in a voice that, while recognisable, certainly isn’t Sollux’s. ‘Sorry I’m so early, I just didn’t want to be late! I brought over some pumpkins for you to borrow for tonight, I figured they weren’t doing any good out by our house where no-one would see them. They’re in the car.’

‘Cool, we can put them with ours, there’s room.’

‘Need any help?’ John’s dad offers.

Your friend Jade pokes her head inside to reply.‘There’s only three, and one of them’s smaller ‘cause it’s Bec’s. Thanks though!’

John shuts the door behind himself as they leave to go get them. It’s not longer than a minute or two before they come back in.

Jade is dressed as the wicked witch of the west, green face paint and ruby slippers included. ‘I see you got her, my pretty,’ you say, and she looks over. ‘And her little dog too!’ She brandishes a plush Scottish terrier, smiling wide. She has the same buck teeth as John, despite them not being related by blood. ‘Oh, hi Karkat.’

There’s a knock on the door a few minutes later. John’s caught in conversation with Jade, so you get up to answer it. This time it is Sollux, although it’s only by his height and the frameless glasses still perched on the bridge of his nose that you recognise him. The rest of him has been completely transformed into the zombie of Abraham Lincoln. You know it without question; there’s nothing else he possibly could be. ‘Nice costume.’

‘I told you so. You’re not bad either. I’m not sure what you’re supposed to be, though.’

‘Edgar Allan Bro.’

‘Oh. Cool.’

‘Thanks.’ You stand aside to let him in. The sky behind him has changed from undesirable to downright daunting. You’re definitely going to need an umbrella.

‘You didn’t say happy Halloween, Dave,’ John admonishes as you come back inside.

You look back at Sollux. ‘Happy Halloween.’

‘Thank you, Dave, for that impromptu festive greeting.’

‘You’re welcome.’

You sit down again. Eridan is staring at Sollux. ‘You’re the zombie of Abraham Lincoln.’

‘Yes I am.’

Most eyes are on Sollux now. ‘That’s a really well-done costume, Sollux. Nice job,’ Jade says, amidst similar sentiments from the others in the room.

‘Thanks. You should wait til you see AA, though. She’s got like, low-budget effects on crack.’

‘What’s she going as, the zombie of Mary Todd Lincoln?’ Karkat asks.

Sollux looks unimpressed. ‘She’s not actually my girlfriend, and you know it. Oh, and-’ you’re not sure if he just now remembered, or if it’s a timed change of topic, but he roots around in the black bag he has with him to pull out his mp3 player and a small stereo stand. ‘I brought my Halloween playlist. It’s got, like, two dozen Spooky Scary Skeletons remixes.’

‘Two dozen what?’

‘Spooky Scary Skeletons remixes.’

‘Didn’t quite catch that.’

‘Spooky Scary Skeletons remixes.’

‘Say that one more time.’

‘Fuck you.’ He goes to set it up on the knick-knack shelf in the corner, and rolls his eyes while Karkat snickers.

 

People trickle in over the next half hour. Aradia is indeed impressive as some sort of electrocuted ghost. She’s somehow got streaks in her giant mass of hair to glow, and lines along her body and under her top layer of clothes to flicker. Her colours are washed-out, her hair frazzled and dusted with chalk, her face made up to be gaunt. Sollux sits half on her lap while she eats two different flavours of lollipop at once. Arguably even more impressive is your cousin Rose, who has to identify herself at the door because of the hand-knitted lilac Cthulhu mask she’s wearing. She has gloves to match, and a soft-toned sweater and corduroys. Her mom follows her in as a classic witch.

And then there’s your friend Terezi, who stands so close to you after first arriving your noses are barely inches from each other when you turn to face her. She may pretend to do it on accident if pressed, but you know she knows. She cackles at the small noise you make when you flinch, and moves back, satisfied. ‘Hey coolkid.’

‘Miss Pyrope.’

She smiles again. Her teeth are pointier than human teeth should be, and she displays many of them. ‘What are you going as?’

You describe your costume to her. ‘Who are you supposed to be?’

‘Miles Edgeworth. You know, from the Phoenix Wright games.’

‘I’ve never played.’

‘You’ve said. It’s fine.’

‘There’s candy, do you want some?’

‘Red hard candy.’

You reach over to grab some, arm bumping against John’s proton pack on the way. He scoots over after you have to sort through the bowl a bit. ‘Hold out your hand,’ you say after you yank yours away from the bowl’s, and put three suckers in it.

‘Thank you Dave.’ She puts a lilt to the sentence.

‘No problem.’

The doorbell rings again, and John gets up to answer it. ‘Who’s that?’ Terezi asks.

‘Vriska.’

‘Vriska!’ she calls out, delighted, and manages to turn around to be facing almost the right way.

After Vriska (dressed as a movie character you and Terezi don’t recognise but John and Karkat do, which tells you all you need to know) comes Nepeta (dressed as an anime character you pretend not to recognise) and her best friend-slash-boyfriend-slash-who even knows Equius, whom she’s roped into matching. There’s a bit of commotion on the front steps as Tavros is transported up them, and his dad stays for the party. Mr Nitram may have not put more effort than an eyepatch with a skull and crossbones on into his own costume, but his son makes a rather excellent pokemon trainer, a homemade plush tauros on his lap. You talk with him (read: tease him) for a short while before his best friend Gamzee arrives, done up as a surprisingly creepy skeleton.

Tailing the group is Feferi as the cutest Jack Sparrow this side of age eight. Eridan blushes when he says hello, and she quickly disregards him to sit with Jade and Nepeta. After a few minutes of waiting for Kanaya, your last expected guest, John turns off the music and puts on Night of the Living Dead. Murphy’s law says she’ll show up not long after, and Murphy does not fail you: she slips in amidst the quiet chatter intermingled with occasional laughter that backdrops the first scene. She has a pea coat closed over her costume, but she removes it and, as you overhear from her mutterings with Rose, the dress she has on underneath is that of the vampire Carmilla.

It’s a sign of how small this town is that your entire grade, plus John’s dad’s spoon costume, fits in a living room.

The movie gets drowned out by talk after a while, enough that John gives in and turns down the volume, leaving it to captions. Terezi grumbles about this so you whisper embellished descriptions to her. (‘Don’t go in the basement, don’t fucking go down in the- she went down in the basement. Guess what’s in the basement.’ ‘Let’s all argue and create an environment inside that’s nearing as dangerous as the one outside! What a brilliant plan! Great teamwork, guys.’) And then Vriska sits down and pries her attention away from you with a plate of snacks and a trilled conversation starter, so you find something else to do.

There’s a small group in the corner having pokemon battles, which overlaps slightly with a group of girls chittering about... it appears Mars. John’s dad and Rose’s mom are talking about undoubtedly very grownup (or... spoony) things. The remaining people are strewn about the room. You give up your spot on the sofa in favour of food. Equius is standing in the study looking awkward.

‘Sup,’ you say.

‘Hello,’ he replies, awkwardly.

You grab a plate and a cupcake. ‘It’s very exciting in here, I can see why you’re not joining the festivities. You never know what crazy trick the chips might pull.’

He eyes you, sizing up your sarcasm.

‘Do you play pokemon?’

‘No. Nepeta suggested-’

‘Do you know anything about Mars?’

‘I don’t understand the relevance of these questions.’

‘Just... Join the party. Or not, I don’t really care. You’re just standing there, being all creepy- go bother Karkat or something, at least.’

‘Why would I purposefully bother Karkat?’

‘It’s fun. He yells at you like one of those yippy little dogs people carry around in their purses.’

He furrows his brow.

‘Whatever, dude.’ You shake your head, and leave.

The puppy in question has stolen your seat, but you fully expected to lose it to somebody, so you don’t really mind. John is sitting on the stairs, Gamzee wandering away from a conversation with him as you approach. You sink down into the spot next to him.

‘Hey,’ he says with a smile.

‘Hey.’ You can’t help but smile back. ‘Great party,’ you add after a moment or two of silence.

‘Thanks. I was thinking we should head out soon, it’s almost seven. I wonder how cold it is.’

Trick-or-treating. This is one of few times it’s been mentioned today, although – or possibly because – you, and you suspect most of the others, are living in degrees of awareness that this will most likely be your last year. You’re fourteen, now, and the world is a disapproving place. There’ll still be costumes, and parties, definitely, but you’ll be leaving the free candy of childhood behind.

You shrug. ‘I’ve got a jacket, you’ve got a jumpsuit. Rose has encased herself in yarn.’

He laughs. ‘She’s grown a new coat for the winter.’

‘I prefer to migrate, myself.’

‘Really?’ It’s an honest question.

You shrug again. ‘I dunno. It’d be nice to go back to Texas. Not permanently, I mean-’ you add after a beat and a Johnward glance.

‘Bet you miss it, huh. I would too.’

You nod. You can feel your cheeks heating up. He notices. ‘It’s cool,’ he says, starting up another smile. ‘I mean, last year was pretty great, right?’

You smile, although he did nothing to ameliorate your blush. ‘Yeah, it was.’

‘Personally, I think stockpiling food is the best strategy. Then you can just hunker down. Too bad there’s school.’

‘I think you just summed up everyone’s experience as a student in a sentence.’

He laughs. ‘Too bad there’s school,’ he repeats.

‘There’s not school until Monday,’ a new, slightly muffled voice says, and Rose is (presumably) looking down at the two of you.

‘I know that. Jeez, Rose, you can’t just jump right into the conversation and expect to make sense.’

‘I suppose I can’t. But I, and the others, were wondering – we do intend to trick-or-treat, do we not?’

He gets up. ‘Yeah, I was just wondering about a good time for that. Is it raining?’

You take a few steps to the window and cup your hands against it to check. ‘Not yet, as far as I can tell.’

‘I still think it would be wise if we all brought umbrellas.’

‘Do you have an extra one?’ you ask John.

‘You should bring out any you can spare,’ adds Rose. ‘I can find out who needs one.’

He nods. ‘Cool. Tell them we’re gonna go soon, I’ll go let my dad know.’

It turns out most people had the insight to bring rainthings with them, and the Egberts can provide for those who didn’t. Eridan approaches you, pouting, after being stuck with a bright yellow kids’ unbrella, eyeing the plain black one in your hand longingly. You don’t even have to wait for him to speak. ‘No, this one goes with my outfit.’

‘And this one goes with mine?’

‘Hell yes, are you kidding me? Severus Snape with a duckie umbrella, it’s comedy gold.’

‘You really think so?’

You nod.

‘Well what about Edgar Allan Bro with a duckie umbrella?’

‘I’m already a joke, that’d just be overdoing it.’

He sighs. ‘Fine.’

‘I’ll take a picture. You’ll be internet famous.’

‘You’d just use it to make fun of me.’

‘So cynical.’ You laugh a bit. ‘Yeah, I probably would. But again: Snape with a duckie umbrella. Consider it. Appreciate the irony of the situation.’

He considers it, and smiles, apparently appreciating it as well. ‘All right.’

Wow, you accidentally cheered someone up. Good for you. John’s dad calls for order.

 

The weather’s a lot less unpleasant than you expected. Sure, it’s dark and chilly, but you’ve got flashlights and jackets, and it’s neither windy nor wet. Yet. You stick your hands in your pockets and hope your raven stays with you.

Trick-or-treating is fun and largely uneventful. It’s not long before the rain starts and you each become small bubbles, kept within your own radius by bumping umbrellas. You stagger off into smaller groups anyway: you and John and Rose and Jade, Sollux and Aradia closely followed by Gamzee pushing Tavros, Feferi and Nepeta and Equius, Vriska and Terezi sharing a spider web-print umbrella and laughing their heads off. You span almost a street block, ends capped by the fathers present. Rose’s mom stayed back to hand out candy.

It gets colder and colder as the evening goes on. You don’t rake in as much as you’d like, but really, when does anybody? It probably looks like less than it is in your large rucksack, anyway. You eat at least a fraction of it before you return to John’s house. The harlequin on the porch is untouched by the rain.

People trickle out slower than they arrived. Tavros and his dad leave right away, but Rose and her mom hang around for a short while longer. There’s mass parent-phoning in the living room, a dozen cells out at once. Your wig is starting to get itchy, but you don’t want to disrobe until everyone not staying the night has left and the party’s officially over. John swipes some Whoppers from your bag when he thinks you’re not looking, and while you don’t really mind, you take something blindly from him on principle. It’s a tootsie pop.

Aradia is the last to leave, waving and chirping cheerfully to Sollux as she does. John kicks off his shoes as soon as she shuts the door. ‘I’m not cleaning anything up til after breakfast tomorrow,’ he declares, sinking lower in his seat. ‘Do you guys wanna trade candy?’

‘Sure,’ you say, among similar voices of assent. Sollux sits down on the floor in front of the couch and dumps his candy out on his lap. John pulls himself up to be crosslegged before doing the same. Eridan leans lazily against the front of one of the couch’s arms, his head near Karkat’s hand, just plain upending his cauldron onto the floor. You straighten yourself up to use your lap as a platform.

You eat another portion of your candy between trading away pieces you don’t like. Eridan and Sollux have a small scuffle over a snickers bar before Karkat climbs catlike off the sofa to snatch it away and eat it on the spot. Eventually you’ve all got your own hoards straightened, a few banana Laffy Taffys lying unwanted on the floor between you.

‘I’m gonna go put my glasses back on,’ Eridan says, and takes his refilled cauldron up with him.

‘It’s almost as if he doesn’t trust us,’ Karkat says, mock-upset, as he goes.

‘S’called being smart, Kar,’ he retorts from the stairs.

‘I should get cleaned up, too,’ Sollux says after forgetting not to rub his nose. ‘Do you mind if I occupy the bathroom for a while?’

‘Let me go first,’ you say. ‘I’ve gotta get this stuff out of my eyebrows.’

‘Sure.’

You get up. ‘Guard my candy,’ you tell John, and head upstairs. The bathroom is miraculously Eridan-free (he must’ve put his glasses in John’s room) so you claim it while you can. It takes a while to wash your eyebrows near-white, but you manage. You go to John’s room afterwards – Eridan has since vacated – to change out of your costume and into pyjamas.

Karkat, it appears, dashed up and changed while you were in the bathroom. They’ve started up Super Smash Brothers Brawl again, though Sollux pauses it when he sees you.‘Don’t wait up for me,’ he says, getting up. ‘This shit takes a while to get off.’ You steal his spot and controller.

‘I’m gonna go take my costume off,’ John says. ‘Your turn on guard duty, Dave.’

‘I shall protect it with my life, m’Lord.’

He laughs before following Sollux upstairs.

You play various videogames for a while longer. John brings all your hats down and you wear them with a lot less grumbling than the first time around. It’s over an hour before Sollux returns, beardless and normal-hued. You switch to watching lame horror movies eventually. John goes and makes popcorn.

You all stay awake through the first movie, maintaining a somewhat punchy Mystery Science Theatre type commentary throughout it. Eridan falls asleep not long into the second, sitting in a chair but leaning over onto the sofa, his head on his arms. By the time John gets up to put in a third Karkat is not much more than a dark, condensed mass, curled up like an animal on Eridan’s end of the sofa. You manage to catch a vague idea of the first scene before sleep overtakes you as well.

 

When you wake the room is as dark as you left it, images still flickering across the tv screen. Sollux has his head against Eridan’s knees and is snoring softly. Your hat’s fallen off. Most importantly, your head is resting against John’s shoulder.

You pick it up. ‘Hey,’ he whispers.

‘Hey,’ you whisper back. ‘Are you still awake?’ You realise after asking how stupid of a question it is. He knows what you mean, though. ‘I slept a bit. The movie woke me up, someone screamed. I think this is towards the end. I’ve only been awake for, like, five minutes. Maybe ten.’

You nod.

‘I must’ve moved or something, I’m sorry.’

‘It’s fine.’

He nods, before reaching up to take and fold his glasses. ‘Put these on the- that thing?’ You do. ‘Since I’m probably just gonna fall asleep again.’ He peters off into a yawn.

You don’t know what’s running through his sleep-deprived mind; all you know is there is a hand coming steadily towards your face. You tense up as he slips your shades off the bridge of your nose, and folds them before handing them to you as casually as he did his own. ‘You’re too tired to make sense,’ he informs you, and then has a proper look at you for the first time. ‘Huh.’

You flush.

‘Rose said you were albino, but... I was expecting blue. That’s what you hear, isn’t it?’

You nod. ‘Most people do.’

‘And even with red eyes, you expect, you know, the coloured part. The iris. Not the black part, too.’

‘Yeah, I know.’

‘That’s so cool.’

Your faces are less than a foot apart. His eyes are _blue_ , incongruous with his skin tone, and searching the unpigmented depths of yours. You’re conscious of your every eye movement.

‘That’s so cool,’ he repeats. ‘Kind of weird, too. Like I’m looking straight at the back of your eyes.’

‘Well you kind of are.’

‘Freaky. And your eyelashes.’

‘Will you losers shut up?’ Sollux whispers from the floor. You hadn’t noticed that he stopped snoring. ‘I was asleep. Precious, precious sleep.’

John laughs lightly, quietly. ‘Sorry.’ He shifts down, preparing to doze off again. You look over at the TV, and then away, finding it too bright just from familiarity with dimness. You wonder if John would say anything if you put your head on his shoulder again; what John would’ve said if you’d taken your chance. Sollux was awake by that point, though, and there would’ve been a scene. Better that you didn’t.

You don’t know when sleep claims you again, but you dream of piano music and blue, blue skies. The song dissolves in your mind seconds after you wake.


End file.
